This page was inspired by the 1996 biannual WASP reunion. At one point, during the convention, I sat with my mother while we listened to Dr. Ken Magid, who produced Women of Courage, a video about the WASP seen on public television. His talk was titled "Share the WASP Living Legacy." Dr. Magid's main point was that we have in the WASPs a group of heroines that our country needs. They should replace the violent, aggressive, and artificial heroes presented by today's media. With that in mind, I decided to share the legacy by providing the names of these women. I have also added the
trainees who were accepted into the group but that did not make it to graduation.

Over 25,000 women applied for Cochran's program. Of those, 1,830 were choosen to receive training, 1,074 graduated, and 916 were on duty when they were disbanded. The air miles flown by these women totaled 60,000,000. About 10,000,000 of those hours were for ferrying aircraft. They flew all of the planes developed for the war, including the Boeing built
B-17
and
B-29
bombers.

The above counts do not include the 28 women of the Womens Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) that were organized by Nancy Love, the first women to fly a P-51 on February 27, 1943. The WAFS program was officially announced on September 10, 1942. The first 11 WAFS were sworn in on September 21, 1942. (This was also the day the B-29 made its first sucessfull flight.) By the middle of December, they were all on station. The WAFS are often referred to as The Originals. These 28 women are listed below. Of particular interest is that Evelyn Sharp was the most experienced pilot with 2,950 hours of flight prior to entering the program.

In the meantime, Jacqueline Cochran, who was the first women to fly a bomber across the Atlantic on June 17, 1941, got approval to start another training program on September 15, 1942, the Womens Flight Training Detachment (WFTD). The first class was started on November 15, 1942, and the last class graduated on December 7, 1944.

From the graduation of the first class of WFTDs in April of 1943 to the closing of the program, the WAFS and WFTDs worked together. On June 28, 1943, this group of women pilots were officially renamed as the
WASP
.

They are listed by class and then alphabetically by their maiden names. In some cases, the maiden name was not known and only a married name is shown. If their maiden name was known, their married name is shown in brackets, [].

On the July 19, 1943,
Shirley Slade, class 43-5, made the cover of LIFE magazine.

In May, 1944,
DeDe Johnson
and
Dora Dougherty
were selected to fly the Boeing B-29. Col. Paul Tibbets taught
Dora
and DeDe to fly the B29, Ladybird, and later he flew the Enola Gay over
Hiroshima.

Five of the WASP aslo served in England as part of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA). The ATA was also a civilian program and ferried aircraft for the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force throughout Britain from 1939 to 1945. Their rank and service time are appended to their names. Two of these women servered in the ATA, WASP, and U. S. military - Hazel Raines from 44-3 and Emily Chapin of 44-10.

There are 150 of the WASP listed below who joined a branch of the military after the WASP were disbanded. Their highest rank achieved and service branch are appended to their names.

These twenty-eight women were the first. They begain reporting for duty on 9/11/42, began training on 9/21/42, and completed training by the middle of December. They averaged 1,400 hours of flying before they joined the WAFS.